


The Strain of Solitude

by SpiceFlux



Series: The Strain of Memory Continuity [2]
Category: Shovel Knight
Genre: Background Relationships, Gen, Minor Violence, Possible Character Death, Post-Endgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28115295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiceFlux/pseuds/SpiceFlux
Summary: Specter Knight will do whatever it takes to get his locket back. But there's a fine line between devotion and obsession, and he's starting to worry the people around him.A sequel/alternate take on The Strain of Memory.
Series: The Strain of Memory Continuity [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059716
Kudos: 12





	1. All That Glitters

**Author's Note:**

> I recommend reading Strain of Memory first in the same way that I recommend people watch the first few dozen episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist 2003-- the pacing and delivery are better, but like Brotherhood, this fic will suffice as a standalone. 
> 
> Alternatively, feel free to read the first three or four chapters of Strain of Memory and then pick up here. The point at which the two divert is very clear. Whatever floats your boat.
> 
> Finally: This fic is tagged as Possible Character Death because there are stakes here, and I don't believe in tagging my fics with spoilers. Just come in ready is all I ask.

It all started when Specter Knight discovered his prized locket missing. 

He had practically beaten the information on its whereabouts out of Plague Knight, accompanied Missy and Acolyte on an ill-advised endeavor in exchange for a lead on Chester's location, and eventually chased down Chester aboard the grand Flying Machine. 

Of course, Chester refused to surrender the location of his locket unless Specter offered something in return. In this case, the asking price was the delivery of King Knight's full collection of heirlooms.

This posed an interesting dilemma to Specter Knight. On the one hand, he knew he could likely ask Red, Scarlet, Missy, and Acolyte for magical assistance locating the locket, which would completely bypass Chester's involvement. He knew they would likely be happy to help, and that he would likely be successful in finding his locket that way.

Even so, the mere thought of asking for help like that injured his pride. He didn't need their help— he was perfectly capable of handling this himself. He'd fight King Knight, all his rat subjects, and any other foes necessary to do it. There was no need to involve anybody else or to place himself in the unenviable position of relying on another person.

Besides, the last time he'd asked for help from Missy and Acolyte, it had gone poorly. He'd nearly been killed by the Troupple King in the process. He didn't trust those two not to make matters worse simply by involving themselves.

So, given the choice between asking his friends for help and doing Chester's dirty work, he elected to do the latter.

***

In his days as a thief, he'd planned many a heist. He would spend days with Luan casing potential victims, taking detailed notes of the site, and carefully preparing for the event. Many a night was spent sitting around the campfire exchanging ideas and avenues by which to part some fool nobleman and his ill-gotten wealth. 

What he wouldn't give to have Luan's insight right now! King Knight was a threatening adversary who had bested him in combat on multiple occasions. If Specter was going to do this, he would need to rely on stealth to get in and out of King Knight's residence without being noticed.

The irony of the scenario was not lost on Specter Knight, of course. Here he was planning a theft so he could recover an object stolen from HIM by theft. Some sardonic part of his mind wanted to justify it by reminding him that King Knight was terrible and didn't deserve nice things. On the other hand, the fool had already had everything stripped of him already—his title, his power, his subjects. King Knight's fairly won heirlooms were some of the few consolation prizes left to his name.

That didn't stop Specter Knight from proceeding as planned, though. He and Luan had stolen more substantial prizes from better people before. Back when Reize was just an infant, there were some truly meager days, and they did what was necessary to keep the child fed. In spite of it all, Specter Knight didn't regret a moment of it. He certainly wouldn't regret separating a gilded charlatan from a few trinkets.

***

It didn't take a master spy to memorize King Knight's tedious schedule. A few simple days of reconnaissance revealed that King Knight worked at the Pridemoor castle cleaning the floors, and he lived with his mother, apparently. He spent his spare time at home training rats to perform simple tasks, and he kept a secret stash filled with Joustus cards, the hypocrite. 

The difficult part of this equation was the fact that King Knight appeared to keep his heirlooms on his person at all times. Where did they all go? Specter Knight kept his own Curios tucked into various pockets and folds of fabric in his cloak. He saw no apparent way for King Knight to do the same. 

A few days later, he witnessed King Knight open a secret compartment in his armor to withdraw his Duelist Glove (in response to someone at the Juice Bar insulting his honor, naturally). Well, that answered that, at least. King Knight was then embarrassingly escorted off the premises, and Specter Knight had all he needed to make his move. 

The plan was simple: He would wait until King Knight changed into sleeping clothes and went to bed, teleport into the bedroom, open the secret compartment on the armor he had just changed out of, and sneak out. Nobody would be any wiser, and Specter would be long gone by the time King Knight awoke in the morning.

And so the night came that he would accomplish the deed.

***

King Knight's home was a medium-sized, yet humble abode on the outskirts of the Village, not far from the gleaming towers of Pridemoor. The window had clearly once afforded a nice view of the Tower of Fate in the distance; now the clearing in the trees and the East-facing windows gazed endlessly at something that no longer existed.

Despite Specter Knight's many magical abilities, he lacked a way to make himself invisible. So he had to be careful as he gazed into the windows of King Knight's home, taking note of the motions of everyone indoors. He already had to levitate in order to even reach the windows, so he also needed to watch for bystanders outside, lest they draw attention to him and end his venture before it had begun.

In this precarious position of observation, he was able to see King Knight's mother turn in to bed while King Knight stayed up for several more hours. It appeared he was polishing a set of armor almost identical to the one he was wearing, save for the magenta cast to its cape. If Specter Knight had to guess, that would likely be the armor that he'd need to search for the heirlooms. It shouldn't be difficult—King Knight had made it look so easy to open. Specter was sure he could figure it out.

Eventually, King Knight himself bid a pompous good night to his so-called "loyal rat subjects" and pinched out the candle at his bedside. Within ten minutes, loud snoring poured out of his bedroom, and Specter Knight made his move.

Specter curled his cloak in on himself and disappeared, reappearing a few feet away inside King Knight's room. Back in his proper thievery days, he had taken care to step quietly so as to not wake sleeping victims with his footsteps. Nowadays, the only thing quieter than those footsteps was levitating, so that's what he did. 

Specter floated eerily over to the newly-polished armor King Knight had toiled over. Now that he knew what he was looking for, locating the secret compartment was trivial, but getting it open was an entirely different matter…

Specter Knight laid a gloved hand on the surface of the armor, first pressing gently, and then pressing firmly. The compartment would not yield. Specter grew frustrated. He lifted the breastplate from its spot on King Knight's dresser, placed it between his two hands, and quietly pressed with all his might. It still did not budge.

This was a nuisance. It had appeared to be a pressure-sensitive compartment in the Juice Bar. Why was this so difficult? Did it require a sliding motion? Specter tried pressing, sliding, and retracting the panel in every combination he could think of, but to no avail. 

Specter resisted the urge to slice the armor open with his scythe and be done with it already. If he could cut through the four-foot cannonballs on the Flying Machine, he could surely handle a thin piece of armor, but it would cause a racket that would surely wake King Knight from his slumber. No, he would exhaust all other options before resorting to that.

In this case, he drew his own Dread Talon gauntlet. The razor-sharp claws afforded him some extra dexterity, and after some fiddling with it a bit, he revealed the outer edges of the mechanism that kept the compartment closed. 

Specter exhaled quietly with relief. He was so close. He glanced over at King Knight, who was still sound asleep. Then he turned back to the armor.

He located a tiny part of the mechanism, a thin cord of metal the size of a quill point. With proper leverage, he could snap through it with his Dread Talon, but it would create some noise. Best to be on his way, then.

Specter teleported from King Knight's abode, checked his surroundings, and snapped the mechanism piece well outside of King Knight's earshot. 

The compartment fell apart in his hands, revealing the entire interior of the compartment. This included a sliding piece of metal meant to deter exactly what Specter was trying to do. The device required a surprisingly complex series of pressing, sliding, and retracting before it would slide into place. What a novelty.

However, Specter was dismayed to learn that the interior of the compartment was empty. 

He cursed softly. That gilded fool not only wore his armor to bed, but his whole collection of heirlooms as well? That threw a wrench into his plan. He didn't relish the thought of searching King Knight's armor while he slept. Unfortunately, he couldn't return the damaged armor to its location without attracting suspicion at a later date, so he had no time to locate a sleeping draught of any kind to simplify the task. (Which was fine—he didn't want to interact with the alchemists anyway.)

No, he would finish the job tonight, no matter the consequences.

Specter teleported back inside King Knight's residence and returned the magenta armor set to its proper location. He did not look forward to this next task, but he would do what must be done.

King Knight rolled over in his bed, snoring deeply, sprawled out luxuriously in all directions. The secret compartment in his armor showed tantalizingly from under the covers.

Specter hesitated a moment, but then he firmly grasped the breastplate and performed the sliding motion he had observed on the other set of armor. This time, the compartment unlatched immediately, revealing the full set of heirlooms for his taking.

Specter only allowed himself the briefest moment of celebration before he got to work unloading the heirlooms into his cloak. One by one, the heirlooms disappeared from King Knight's armor, until— wait, was that a rat??

Sure enough, there inside King Knight's armor was a rat dressed in some kind of harness. Was… was the rat an heirloom? Why was it here? Specter counted the other heirlooms and realized that without the rat, he would be short an heirloom. So the rat was coming with him.

He cursed quietly under his breath and reached his gloved hand into the compartment. The rat squeaked loudly and bit him on the hand.

Despite himself, Specter Knight cursed loudly, and King Knight stirred from his sleep.

Specter Knight was now out of time. A gold light ensnared the harnessed rat, and Specter telekinetically lifted it from the compartment. As King Knight sat up in bed, recognition dawned on his groggy form.

"You…!!" King Knight roared.

Specter Knight curled in on his cloak, disappearing from the room with all the heirlooms in tow. 

There would be consequences for this. But not right now. Right now, he had a merchant to locate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I'm back on my BS, what of it lol
> 
> Look, there isn't enough longform Shovel Knight fanfiction in the world. And the rule is that when you can't find the fanfiction you want to read, the onus falls to you to write it. So here I am. And here you are too!
> 
> This is part 1/7. The rest is written, I just need to do final editing/proofreading/preparing to post, which will happen over the next... some length of time. So this work won't be left to languish as an incomplete fic forever. But it's not all going up today haha


	2. Magical Jewelry

Specter Knight spent the night hidden in a tree on the outskirts of town. He saw an enraged King Knight pace up and down the streets, screaming bloody commotion about how he had been robbed and everyone needed to find the perpetrator Specter Knight right away. 

However, the town guards didn't seem especially sympathetic to King Knight's plight. At first they laughed him off. Then they told him he'd had too much to drink. Then they laughingly told him to go home. Finally the joke grew stale, and they told him to go home or face the consequences.

"But he could be anywhere!" King Knight shouted indignantly. "He could be in that barrel! Or that stable! Or that tree!" Here he pointed dramatically at Specter Knight's current hiding spot. Specter snickered quietly.

"Or he could be in that funny little head of yours," one guard said, sounding like he was tired of the conversation.

"You nincompoops wouldn't know since you haven't been searching! Some town guard you are!" King Knight accused.

Now the town guard stood up to his full height, which was nearly that of the humongous Polar Knight, and loomed over King Knight menacingly. 

"We don't take kindly to insults," he said slowly and meaningfully. "And if you know what's best for you, you'll go home and leave this until morning."

"Don't you dare try to intimidate me!" King Knight cried out. "I am the mighty King Knight, the strongest fighter in the Valley! I've taken out foes far larger and more dangerous than the likes of you!"

One guard glanced to the other and nodded, and each grabbed King Knight by a bicep and dragged him home.

"How many times do I have to remind you that this is no way to treat your rightful king?!?!" King Knight roared as he was carried away. The farther away they dragged him, the less his shouting sounded like a genuine threat so much as it did a child's tantrum. Eventually his screams were swallowed up by the night, and that was the end of that.

Specter Knight now had ten heirlooms (including a feisty rat) in tow. He was eager to rid himself of these items (especially the rat) as soon as possible. The squirming thing kept nearly wriggling out of his magical grip, and anything less than his full attention on maintaining it ran the risk of the rat escaping. Specter would have enclosed the creature in a box of some kind, but it appeared to have a pressure-sensitive explosive strapped to it, and he preferred not to take his chances.

Now, where was Chester?

Early dawn crept into midmorning, and there he sat in the tree with that accursed squirming creature. Eventually he saw a blue-clad figure strut down the simple country road. There was nobody else around for miles in any direction.

Chester suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, stared at a relic on his wrist, and looked around in confusion. Finally his gaze traced its way up the tree, and he smiled knowingly.

"Having fun up there, Donovan?" Chester said with his trademark smirk.

"Quiet!" Specter said with annoyance as he descended from the tree. 

Chester chuckled. "That didn't take too long. How did the extraction go?"

If looks could kill, Specter Knight would have bored a hole straight through Chester's smug face. The rat struggled in its magical grasp, an apparent fountain of endless energy.

Chester's eyebrows raised. "That well, huh? But how do you expect me to transport that… thing?"

Specter Knight deposited the rat into Chester's grasp. The light surrounding it faded, and the creature began wriggling with renewed vigor. Chester's eyes widened as he found himself juggling the accursed thing.

"That," Specter Knight said pointedly, "is now YOUR problem." He then lay the remaining heirlooms on the ground at Chester's feet. "Now, my payment."

"Not to worry," Chester said appeasingly as he wrestled with the rat. Eventually he coaxed the thing into some kind of carrying hold from which it could do no harm. From there, he removed a small carrying case with holes punched in the sides from his pack, and he unceremoniously dumped the rat inside and shut it.

"Of course I haven't forgotten your payment," Chester said as he clasped the carrying case to his belt and packed away the other heirlooms. "You've gone above and beyond for this information. The recipient is Shovel Knight."

Specter Knight sighed deeply. A formidable foe. Whatever difficulties he had in securing the heirlooms from King Knight would be tenfold with Shovel Knight, to say nothing of the chance that Shield Knight might be with him…

"Where is he," Specter Knight said flatly.

Chester smiled. "Although not part of our deal, I did take the liberty of looking that up for you. Out West, past the Plains of Passage, in a small farming cottage. Keeps the locket in a small drawer in the living room. 

Specter Knight nodded curtly.

"Oh, and one more thing," Chester added. "To thank you for securing these objects, I had a… let's say a complimentary gift for you."

Specter glared in suspicion.

Chester laughed. "No need to be like that, my friend! It's a strange thing that I've had trouble selling. People in these parts are suspicious of the Amulet and its power, you see."

That got Specter Knight's attention.

"You see," Chester continued, "I was surprised to learn that the Amulet wasn't completely destroyed with the Tower of Fate. Damaged, of course. Shattered, even—but there was still a little juice left in it. I… repurposed it into this neat little charm. It's a one-time use mind control spell."

Specter Knight folded his arms. "The thought that you can't sell a mind control spell is as absurd as they come," he scoffed. "I want to know the catch."

"Catch?" Chester laughed. "No catch. I just don't want it on my person is all. The town guards can get … uppity about that kind of thing."

"What was to stop you from using it on me to compel me to get King Knight's heirlooms?" Specter asked darkly.

Chester gave an evil grin. "Don't flatter yourself, Donovan. I don't need an amulet to control you. You got them for me all the same, didn't you?"

Specter Knight stiffened.

"There's also the fact that you're so steeped in the Amulet's magic that it couldn't do more to you if it tried," Chester said offhandedly. "I mean, you're a walking corpse, for crying out loud! Hard to get much more magical than that. But it'd work on any non-magical being. Probably."

Specter Knight shook his head. He wasn't sure he wanted any part in this nonsense.

"Look, I figured I'd do a kind thing," Chester said in annoyance. "You can use it on Shovel Knight if he gives you any trouble, and I get the town guard to stop breathing down my neck. We both win. Quit looking a gift horse in the mouth," he said as he shoved the glass trinket into Specter Knight's hand.

"I have places to be," Chester said as he walked away. "But good luck with your quest and stuff."

And then he was gone.

Specter Knight stared at the black and purple pendant in his hand. It was a long, thin piece of blown glass containing swirls of magical energy inside. Its power was a fraction of that of the Amulet before it, but the energy was familiar all the same. 

Attached to the pendant was a small note with detailed instructions on how to cast and dismiss the spell. Seemed simple enough.

On the one hand, if Specter Knight knew what was good for him, he should probably destroy this thing before somebody got hurt. But on the other hand, it sounded too useful to allow to go to waste.

Perhaps against his better judgment, he decided to hold onto the accursed thing.

***

Next on his docket was a visit to Shovel Knight. But reaching him would involve crossing the Plains of Passage, and that was not a journey to be taken lightly. By his estimation, getting there and back would take at least three straight days of flying, plus however long it took to locate Shovel Knight's residence. It would be strategic to stock up on supplies before leaving.

So he took a quick stop in the Lich Yard.

He descended through the dark clouds overhanging the Lich Yard to his hideout. Inside, he kept a small store of supplies—some old turkey bones and apple cores, so on and so forth. He packed them up into a traveling bag along with a few vials of Darkness for good measure. 

He didn't have much else worth taking along, so he left the rest and gave stern instructions to Super Skeleton to keep the place safe in his absence. Hopefully it wouldn't come to a test of Super Skeleton's loyalty, though—the being's reliability had been flaky in the past.

As Specter Knight was preparing to leave, a familiar voice stopped him:

"Specter Knight?"

He turned around and saw Red and Scarlet standing in the street, staring in confusion at his pack.

"Are those… travel rations? Are you going somewhere?" Scarlet asked curiously.

Specter grunted noncommittally. 

"You didn't mention anything was amiss," Red said with a hint of surprise in his voice. "It doesn't seem like you to go on a trip like this unexpectedly."

Specter bristled. "I have matters to attend to," he said darkly. "Leave me be."

Scarlet's head lowered. She seemed a bit taken aback by this.

Red tipped his hat politely. "Sorry to keep you, friend. Take care of yourself out there. And just… know that we're here for you, alright? If you ever want to talk…"

"I'll bear that in mind," Specter Knight said coldly as he took to the skies. Red and Scarlet watched with concern as he disappeared into the distance.

***

Specter Knight spent the rest of the day traveling.

The Plains of Passage terrain was treacherous, filled with steep cliffs and sudden drop-offs. The last time he had traveled this way, he hadn't been nearly as proficient at flight as he was now, and crossing the land had been slow and painstaking. He moved much faster in the air, and took some small pride in the speed at which he was crossing.

Even so, the area was immense, and sometime after nightfall, he did stop to rest. He needed no sleep and the darkness posed no obstacle to him, but he did need to regain the energy he had spent. The length of the travel had taken its toll on him.

More out of habit than any necessity, he found himself lighting a campfire there in the woods. Some part of his mind half expected Luan to return from gathering firewood any minute. But he shook those thoughts away. Those times were long gone.

He did absorb the Will from a full set of turkey bones and a few apples, though. With that and a few hours of recuperation, he'd be back in the skies in no time.

He passed the time alternating between slaughtering incoming slimes and staring at the pendant Chester had given him. There was an evil aura to it, that much was certain. But in retrospect, the amulet it was crafted from had given off that same aura, hadn't it?

Had he and Luan been fools to pursue the amulet in the first place? No, he decided, because admitting that would be akin to admitting Shield Knight had been right. He refused to make that concession. Given proper time and resources, he could have mastered and wielded the amulet. And now that he had time and resources, he could master this pendant, too.

There could be a million uses for this pendant. Perhaps when he got his locket back from Shovel Knight, he could use it to refill the spent energy that had saved Reize. Perhaps he could make himself whole again. The possibilities were endless.

The pendant seemed to beckon to him, as though it begged to be used. Some part of it resonated with the magical energy inside Specter Knight himself. This energy belonged to him like a twisted birthright. It was HIS in every sense of the word.

But as for what goal he might put it towards, he did not yet know.

***

A few hours later, in the dead of night, Specter Knight had regained his strength, so he resumed his journey West-ward.

The moonlight cast pale shadows over the steep cliffs of the Plains as he crossed, but by the time dawn crept up over the horizon, these cliffs had begun to flatten into rolling hills. By mid day, he could even see farming cottages off in the distance.

At long last, he had arrived. He slowly made his descent.

After another quick rest and a light apple core lunch, he proceeded on his way. At first he wondered which of these cottages belonged to Shovel Knight, but then he noticed a figure in blue armor tilling the fields outside. That was easy enough.

Shovel Knight seemed preoccupied with his farming and didn't look up to notice Specter Knight in the distance. This suited Specter just fine.  He was worried about the possibility of encountering Shield Knight, though. The chances of any encounter between the two of them ending well was slim. 

Specter Knight ducked to the side of the house to think. On the bright side, there were no windows for a potential Shield Knight to see him through. On the other hand, there were no windows for Specter Knight to see her.

He couldn't imagine Shovel Knight cooperating with a polite request, so more thievery would be in order.

He could do some more reconnaissance, of course. But if Shield Knight were to catch him peeping through their windows, well… there weren't many ways to start off on a worse foot.  Similarly, it was too risky to simply teleport into their home. If he didn't find the correct drawer immediately, he could get caught, and that was among the worst case scenarios.

He thought of the pendant Chester had given him. Under no circumstances would he consider reintroducing the amulet's magic to Shield Knight; as terrible as she was, the Enchantress was worse, and he wouldn't risk bringing her back in any capacity.  Controlling Shovel Knight was still an option, though. But as long as he was busy out in the fields, Specter would prefer not to get him involved.

In the end, Specter Knight had to take something of a risk: he deployed a Skeleton Sentry to pound obnoxiously on the back door while he watched from a distance to see if Shield Knight answered.

Sure enough, the red helmeted head of Shield Knight popped out the back door like clockwork.

"My sweet, did you need something?" Shield Knight called out to Shovel Knight in the field.

"Nay, I have been hard at work!" Shovel Knight called back.

"Odd, I thought I heard knocking," she called back curiously.

"It was probably thy imagination!"

So that settled it. Shield Knight was alive and well, and she guarded the locket like some jealous guard hound. Or maybe she kept busy cleaning or baking or something, but even so, she'd notice if he broke in to steal it.

The reasonable thing to do now was to wait for nightfall and steal it then. But Specter Knight was SO CLOSE. He burned with rage and humiliation at having been put in this position in the first place. His heart ached to think of Luan's precious gift gathering dust in a place like this. The injustice of it all grated on him.

So he allowed himself a moment of ... indiscretion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just settin' the scene over here~
> 
> Some of this chapter is still similar to Strain of Memory, but the differences are important. Don't worry, we'll be plenty derailed from it in no time hahaha


	3. A Disruption to a Simple Life

The garden was always lovely this time of year, Shield Knight thought. Though she loved the spring blossoms and autumn orchard bounties, summertime brought with it all kinds of fresh berries and herbs. 

She had stoked the clay oven in the corner of the house, for today was a pie-baking day. She'd gathered several handfuls of blackberries from the back garden, traded some of her farm's onions for some fresh-milled flour from a neighbor down the street, and used other home-grown ingredients to make a homemade pie. Or, well, several, actually. If she was going to stoke the oven, she may as well get some use out if it. They would make some nice gifts for the neighbors.

Pie #3 had come out crisped to perfection, but she needed more berries for #4, so she made the mistake of stepping outside to gather more.

There on the garden patio stood a skeletal Boneclang. It wore a plain shirt and wielded a rusty sword.

Shield Knight had fought thousands of Boneclangs in her years as a knight. They were no match for her fighting prowess.

And yet.

And yet, when she saw that Boneclang, all she could see were her muddled memories of the Tower of Fate. Visions of the Enchantress's cruelty poured into her mind, and in her efforts to suppress them, she found herself screaming. She was supposed to be safe here. Why was this happening??

Shovel Knight came running immediately, of course. He was always there to catch her in her moments of weakness. But in spite of herself, she was so tired, so ashamed, of needing to be caught so often.

"It's just a trick of the light," she whispered to herself. That's what Shovel Knight always told her when she saw or heard impossible creatures on the back patio. They were only visions, only mistaken sounds, the tortured consequences of her traumatic years in the Tower of Fate.  Even the best soldiers sometimes came home injured, whether physically or mentally. Years of hyper-vigilance in the Tower had left her overly sensitive to the perception of monsters. There was no shame in admitting that. There was no shame in her condition.

Then the Boneclang slashed at her. It was a half-hearted jab to the face like it didn't expect to get that far. But the pain was enough to jar her to her senses like a splash of cold water. None of her tortured visions ever hurt her, so… this thing must be real.

Psychological enemies were one thing, but Shield Knight knew perfectly well how to deal with real enemies. She drew her fist back and let loose a punch to the thing's jaw. 

Her form was still picture-perfect all these years later. The thing dropped to the ground and fell apart. And she hadn't even had her shields!

Speaking of which, she kept her shields mounted on the wall in the hallway, and retrieving them took mere seconds. By the time she had returned to the patio, Shovel Knight had joined her. Unfortunately, so had two other Boneclangs.

"Fear not, Shield!" Shovel Knight said courageously as he bashed a Boneclang in the skull. "These creatures may be fearsome to look at, but remember that they are practically powerless."

"But why are they here?!?!" Shield Knight cried out as she clocked the other one with her small shield. "These foul creatures belong in the Valley that we left. They should not have been able to follow us here."

Shovel Knight defeated his opponent soundly and clapped his hands together. "We will solve this together. Remember, there's no opponent that can face the two of us together."

Shield Knight smiled and remembered how lucky she was to have him. 

"Yonder in the distance," Shovel Knight said suddenly, "it appears to be another!"

Sure enough, a fourth Boneclang clambered about a few hundred feet away. Its brazen existence mocked them.

Shield Knight almost pursued it… but then something else drew her attention. A faint scent, almost imperceptible but cloyingly familiar, wafted out from the house.

"No," she realized. "It's a trick. There's something else inside the house."

Shovel Knight looked curiously at her, but something in her voice must have told him that she was serious, and he trusted her instincts. He followed her inside their small cottage.

As she approached the living room, she realized that what she perceived was not a scent at all, but the aura of magic. And not just any magic—the magic of the amulet.  She stopped dead in her tracks. Her mind filled with static. Those memories that she tried so hard to forget… That aura brought them all back. Suddenly she was back in that horrid fog, watching the Enchantress deal death and destruction while wearing her face…

Shovel Knight brought her back to reality with a gentle hand on her shoulder. She blinked a few times and grounded herself.

"This is a cruel trick," Shield Knight said shakily. "Whoever has brought that evil power to this place… They will surely face judgment for their actions."

Then with a deep breath, she turned the corner into the front living room.

There stood Specter Knight in his full red-cloaked glory. He rifled through an end table drawer like a petty thief looking for spare change. The magenta aura emanating from his person was unmistakable.

Then three things happened simultaneously.

First, Specter Knight lifted Shovel Knight's Phase Locket from its proper location. He looked almost triumphant for an instant before he realized who had walked in.

Second, Shovel Knight saw that happen and cried out, "My phase locket!!"

Third, Shield Knight fully registered exactly who was standing in her living room. She remembered him as that awful thief from the Tower of Fate. She also dimly recalled him serving as the so-called Specter Knight to the Enchantress.

Either way, he was not welcome in her home. She let out a primal scream that she didn't realize she had in her, and years of practice and instinct kicked in, sending her large shield soaring in Specter Knight's direction faster than the eye could see.

It clocked him solidly in the head, sending him reeling into the wall behind him. 

Shield Knight caught her large shield on its rebound and leaped towards Specter Knight, but his cloak swirled around him and he disappeared—only to reappear a few feet away in the corner of the room, perilously close to an end table with a vase of flowers on top. He looked dazed, and his attempt to escape toppled the whole arrangement to the floor.

Shovel Knight leaped over the couch and attempted to land a blow on the intruder, but Specter Knight melted backwards into the wall somehow. Shield Knight looked back and forth for a moment before she saw a figure taking to the skies in the front yard.

"Oh no you don't!" she seethed as she bolted through the front door. With a careful aim, she sent her large shield flying, and it connected with Specter Knight's upper back before ricocheting into her grasp. It staggered his flight pattern a bit, and he dipped several feet.

Shovel Knight came up behind her, and they exchanged a knowing glance. She extended her large shield, and Shovel Knight leaped from it to deliver a solid blow to Specter Knight's neck. Specter let out a howl of pain and plummeted to the ground with a sickening THUD. 

Shovel Knight placed his shovel menacingly at Specter Knight's throat, and Shield Knight pinned him to the ground by his breastplate.

"I bid thee to return what thou hast taken," Shovel Knight said seriously. He wasn't one to anger easily, but even the noble Shovel Knight had his limits.

Surprisingly, Specter Knight began to laugh darkly. A chill ran through Shield Knight's spine—was it her imagination, or was that magical amulet-like aura growing stronger?

"Stop these games!" Shovel Knight shouted. "Whatever foulness brews in your heart, I beg of ye to cast it out!"

But Specter Knight made no such gesture. His bronze visor was inscrutable as always, but he seemed entirely too relaxed for someone with a shovel at their throat. 

Shield Knight narrowed her eyes. Something wasn't right here.

While keeping him pinned to the ground with her leg, she started to rifle through his cloak pockets. If she could find the source of that horrible magical aura and get it away from him…

But it didn't work out that way. The first pocket she tried emptying was apparently the wrong one, and Specter Knight had shouted and disappeared into the ground like… well, like a ghost. Now he was nowhere to be seen, and he had made off with the phase locket.

Shield Knight simmered with rage. How many times must this blundering fool enter her life? How much would he take from her? Could he ever be satisfied? She knelt to the ground and pounded her fists against it a few times. 

Shovel Knight comfortingly reached for her shoulder. "We will catch him," he said soothingly.

But Shield Knight wasn't ready to be soothed just yet. Angry tears burned in her eyes, and words bubbled in her throat until she couldn't contain them.

"Wherever you go, thief, I will follow," she promised the empty air. But that didn't stop her—she knew Specter Knight was listening. "Whatever you seek, you shall not have it. I will haunt you like the ghost you pretend to be, and you will not be rid of me until you answer for your crimes. I will not rest until you are dead and rotting in the ground with that friend of yours."

The empty air did not answer her. But it didn't matter. She knew what she had said. She knew it, and Specter Knight knew it. Their fates were sealed.

Shield Knight turned to Shovel Knight. "We'll need to return to the Valley for a time," she said firmly.

Shovel hesitated, but then nodded. He knew Shield Knight well enough to know when her mind was made up. And she suspected that he wouldn't mind another go at Specter Knight, either.

So they began making preparations for the journey back to the Valley. And Shield Knight's pies sat forgotten on the countertop.

***

"I will not rest until you are dead and rotting in the ground with that friend of yours."

Specter Knight heard these words from his hiding spot behind the house. Judgment Strike had allowed him to pass through the ground long enough to teleport behind the house, and now they believed him gone. But he wasn't. He heard Shield Knight's words loud and clear.

And they filled him with unspeakable rage.

He knew it was a baited attack designed to draw him out of hiding. And it had almost worked. But he knew his limits, and he knew that he could not beat Shovel Knight and Shield Knight in a fight. Not yet, at least.

Or at least not without using Chester's good luck charm. But he had a better idea of what he could use it for now.

When the pair entered their house for some reason, Specter Knight took that opportunity to chain teleport a few times until he was out of view of the farm. Then he was able to fly properly without risk of taking another blow to the neck--the spot still ached something fierce. Was he capable of bruising? Or getting a concussion? He was unsure, but lacked any desire to find out.

As he flew back across the Plains of Passage, he had a lot of time to himself to think. One would imagine that his temper would have cooled down in that time, but that was far from the case. Over the course of the trip, Specter Knight's rage crystallized into a pure blue flame, hotter and more precise than his regular flaming temper. His rage was such that even his joy at finding his locket had been forgotten entirely. 

He wanted revenge on Shield Knight, sure, but even more than that, his mind converged with razor-sharp focus onto a single point of obsession. He would not rest until he achieved it. And nothing would get in his way.

Days of flying only sharpened his focus even further, despite his lack of rest and sustenance. After nearly two days of uninterrupted flying, he reached the Lost City.

He descended the archaeological levels of the dig in a blind rage, wiping out enemies in his path with unfeeling slashes of his scythe. He was not here to dally or to play games. He made a beeline directly to the earthen side chamber where Mole Knight hung around.

***

"Unless you're here to help with the dig, go make yourself scarce!" Mole Knight said cantankerously.

"I'm here with another business proposal--" Specter Knight started, but he was cut off.

"I'm not listening to any more of your 'business proposals,' you ghoul!" Mole Knight said as his fiery plume erupted in size. "Judging by how well the last one went, you're lucky you're still standing!"

"Perhaps you don't understand," Specter Knight said darkly. "You can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which do choose?"

Mole Knight snarled. "More threats? You're gonna have to find a better way to make me do your dirty work this time!"

Specter Knight paused a moment, and then nodded in ominous understanding.

"Very well. The hard way it is."

Then he followed the instructions on Chester's note, and a series of purple fireballs launched from the pendant towards Mole Knight, who started screaming in pain. Soon he was engrossed in a green flame, and the cast of his armor changed from a bright red to a sickly bluish green. 

A mind control spell, eh, Chester? That seemed to be a bit of an understatement. This transformation was almost exactly what had befallen Reize when the Enchantress had taken him over. Except the Enchantress was no more, and Specter Knight possessed what little of her magic remained… so he now controlled Mole Knight.

Mole Knight stood at attention as though awaiting orders.

"I have a new dig site for you," Specter Knight told him. "We are going to the Tower of Fate. Your task will be to dig until you find the corpse of a man named Luan Seatlan. Then I will bring him back to life with necromancy."

Shield Knight had said she wouldn't rest until Specter Knight was with Luan again. Well, neither would he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited the tags to clarify possible character death, since that seemed more accurate than a blanket "major character death" tag. Suffice to say there are stakes here


	4. Digging Too Deep

A month passed.

The Lich Yard saw an influx of knights seeking to meet with Specter Knight for some reason. Red and Scarlet politely told them all that he'd gone on a trip of some sort, and no, they didn't know where. With each visit, they grew more worried about their friend. What had he gotten himself into this time?

Mole Knight had mysteriously disappeared as well, much to the shock and dismay of his underlings. They frantically searched the endless passages of the Lost City—while it was unlike their boss to become trapped in a collapse, that was more likely than him changing into green armor and wandering away, like that one idiot underling said happened.

Of course, nobody went by the ruins of the Tower of Fate anymore, so nobody was any the wiser. Nobody except Black Knight, that is.

***

It had been one month of digging.

Mole Knight took to the work easily enough, as Specter Knight expected. With supernatural digging skills augmented by the magic of the pendant, Mole Knight had quickly created a series of mineshaft-like tunnels through the ground of the Tower. 

Already the rubble of the Tower was somewhat navigable, although Luan's corpse had remained elusive. Specter Knight could only suggest vague guesses as to its location, but with an off-putting cheerfulness, Mole Knight had taken the suggestions and set off to the task regardless.

Specter Knight had been busy, too. It had been a month since he had taken either rest or sustenance (as his rations sat forgotten in his travel pack), but grim resolution carried him forward in his work. He spent his days hacking away at the rubble in the tunnels with his scythe or securing the food and water required to sustain Mole Knight's work.

Progress was slow, but Specter Knight had all the time in the world. Nothing would get in his way.

That didn't stop Black Knight from trying, of course.  The dark-plated fool came by unannounced for reasons he didn't feel like sharing. Specter Knight had not been subtle in his renovations, and the Tower of Fate looked like a construction zone.

Black Knight stared out at the scene in horror.

"What is the meaning of this madness?!" he cried out. 

Specter Knight hovered eerily a few dozen feet away, watching the progress. Black Knight marched over and grabbed Specter Knight gruffly by the arm. 

"You toy with matters beyond your knowledge," Black Knight warned. "Cease this tomfoolery at once."

Specter Knight stared emptily at the wreckage in front of him. "No," he said simply. "I have the power to bring him back. I will not leave him."

Black Knight's hands curled into fists. "This is not the way," he pleaded. "I know all too well the burden of loss. But this is not the way to cope. Please, I beg of you to let the dead rest and—"

"The dead will not rest," Specter Knight said, cutting him off. "And neither shall I. The locket is meaningless when Luan is dead. I realize that now. The work will continue. Are you going to stand in my way?"

Black Knight seemed to recognize the dangerous tone to Specter Knight's voice.

"I… cannot stop you," Black Knight said with irritation. "But I cannot support this recklessness. There are things in the Tower that are better left buried. Please… be careful. Do not needlessly endanger the people of this land. Luan wouldn't want that."

Specter Knight's steely gaze seemed to soften for a moment.

"I won't," he said quietly. "We are taking all necessary precautions."

Black Knight nodded curtly and went on his way. 

"So be it," he said solemnly.

***

Acolyte was a regular at the Juice Bar, and his presence, unlike so many of the others', was regarded as a constant. He was nearly as likely to be there as the light fixture or the rafters.

The others seemed to come and go by the day. Some days King Pridemoor would come by to talk with the people directly. Some days Chester would drop by, peddling his ill-gotten wares. Some days Missy would drop by and chat with Acolyte between his sermons.

Today, Missy and Chester were both there, which was only notable because they hadn't both been there at the same time in over a month. 

"So have you seen Specty at all lately?" Missy asked, her brow furrowed in concern.

"Not at all. Not that I've been by the Lich Yard recently," Acolyte added quickly. He was on break, and signified this by sitting on his pedestal instead of standing.

"I'm kind of worried about him," Missy continued. "Red and Scarlet said he left in a hurry without saying where he was going. It's not like him to spend this long away from his hideout."

"I'm sure he has his reasons," Acolyte said reassuringly. "Right?"

Then Missy's gaze turned to the corner of the room, and she noticed Chester for the first time. The last time Missy had seen Specter Knight, she and Acolyte had given him instructions on how to get ahold of Chester, and that was when he started acting strangely…

Missy turned to Acolyte. "Have you talked to Chester about it, per chance?"

Acolyte thought a moment. "Not really? He's a cagey one, though. Not one to talk about much other than business."

Missy bit her lip thoughtfully, and figured it didn't hurt to talk to him herself. You know, in case Acolyte missed something. It could happen.

Chester seemed to notice her approach. He put on the grin of a seasoned salesman and started to ask if she cared to buy something.

But before he could say a word, Missy's eyes went wide as she noticed a familiar aura emanating from Chester. It glowed a keen magenta and smelled like ozone. Missy could feel it in her teeth like a jolt of electricity.

That was the amulet's energy. It was supposed to have been destroyed. But here it was, emanating from Chester like bad body odor.

She gripped him by the collar of his shirt, cutting off his sales pitch. Chester's eyes went wide, and Missy smiled sweetly back at him.

"Start talking," she ordered.

Chester gulped.

***

In the next room over, Shovel Knight and Shield Knight sat at the bar with a drink to take their minds off the search. They had tried every lead they could think of over the last month, but Specter Knight had simply vanished off the face of the earth. 

Shield Knight sighed deeply and took a deep drink of her lemonade. She may or may not have spiked it with something a little harder.

Shovel Knight sighed.

"You seem discouraged," he said to Shield Knight.

"Of course I am! This wild goose chase has gone on for a month. It feels like we're chasing a…a..."

Shovel Knight snickered. "A ghost?"

Shield Knight smiled wryly and playfully batted at his shoulder. Shovel Knight laughed.

"I guess it sounds stupid when you put it like that," she said with a sigh. "But he's DANGEROUS. And whatever he's been up to, I'm sure it's dangerous, too."

Shovel Knight nodded and took a drink of his (unspiked) orange juice. The swirly straw in his drink poked through the hole in his helmet conveniently.

"Whatever it is, we shall get to the bottom of it," he promised. "He will need to come home eventually, and we'll be ready for him."

Shield Knight smiled.

Suddenly, a pair of footsteps descended to the underground juice bar. Black Knight staggered in, looking very tired, and slumped at the bar.

"One orange juice, please, extra ice," he said morosely.

Shield Knight turned to him. "Black Knight! You have seen better days."

Something softened in his gaze as he looked over at Shield Knight.

"It has been some time," Black Knight said with surprise. "I thought the Tower had claimed you."

Shield Knight gave a half grin. "It will take more than that old thing to do me in," she said wryly. "I escaped with Shovel Knight and we returned to the farm soon thereafter. I didn't realize you didn't know. I'm sorry."

"I see," Black Knight said, sounding… pleasantly surprised? But with a hint of sadness to his voice. 

"What have you been up to?" Shovel Knight asked with concern.

Black Knight gave an empty laugh. "Nothing of any importance, I suppose. I thought you were dead, Shield Knight, and I went to pay my respects at the Tower of Fate ruins. Of course, I did not find you there, but HIM instead."

Shield Knight frowned in confusion. "Who might that be?"

Black Knight sighed. He took a swig of his orange juice and slammed it on the table. "Donovan, that's who! That fool is going to be the death of us."

Shovel Knight and Shield Knight looked at each other. Neither of them recognized the name.

"What is this fellow doing?" Shovel Knight asked consolingly.

"He's got Mole Knight digging around in the Tower of Fate ruins. They're going to unearth the Remnant of Fate, I just know it," Black Knight said miserably.

Shield Knight blinked several times.

"That's not going to happen," she said simply. "I will not allow it."

Shovel Knight stared earnestly into her eyes. "My sweet, did you destroy it in the tower?"

Shield Knight laughed bitterly. "A power like that can't easily be destroyed, Shovel Knight. But it was buried under enough rubble to trap it for a hundred years or more. That is, unless some ignoramus unearths it early. Which I will not allow to happen."

Shovel Knight looked concerned. "But the Alchemists' explosion…"

Shield Knight sighed. "I hope it finished the job. I really do. But if there's even a single chance it didn't…"

Shovel Knight nodded in understanding.

Black Knight gave a quiet laugh. "By all means. Maybe you two can knock some sense into him. Be my guest." He took another swig of his drink.

***

At the other end of the bar, King Knight drank alone. 

He grumbled about that petulant Specter Knight. The audacity of that wretch to break into his home and steal his belongings! And to sell them to Chester, of all people! King Knight had purchased them back, of course, but it was the principle of the thing!

As he griped about his troubles to whoever would listen (which was nobody, but that didn't stop him from griping anyway), a loud rumbling noise broke him from his rant. 

King Knight walked outside and stared into the distance.

***

Specter Knight had shown no signs of stopping in the days since Black Knight's visit.  


Early one afternoon, Mole Knight climbed up from the depths to alert Specter Knight to a find. It was about time. He followed the sickly green silhouette of Mole Knight into the dark depths below.

Mole Knight led him through a labyrinthine network of passages. The tunnels seemed to cross over each other with no regard for rhyme or reason. Specter Knight assumed that there was some complex structural reason why it had been dug this way, and he didn't care enough to actually ask Mole Knight about it.

After a steep descent some several hundred feet into the earth, Mole Knight stopped and gestured Specter Knight into an underground chamber.

This was not the chamber where he and Luan had met their end. But nor was it an unfamiliar location.

"Welcome back, Specter Knight," Horace said with jovial surprise. "Are you here for my brief diversion?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first draft of this chapter had Black Knight refer to Donovan by the last name Placentaur, as that's a name I've seen floating around the fandom a bit. 
> 
> But upon further examination, I realized I can't find any evidence that Placentaur is Donovan's canon last name. Nor can I find any evidence that it's a surname at all, which is to say Ancestry.com turned up 0 records. Also it has the word "placenta" in it??
> 
> Long story short, I cut it, and I'm befuddled as to how this strange name found its way into the fandom in the first place.
> 
> On an unrelated note, things are about to get fun around here. :)


	5. Unfathomable Hubris

Specter Knight stared dumbfounded at Horace.

"What is the meaning of this? Did you not perish with the tower?"

Horace laughed. "This is neither the first nor the last time the tower will fall. And I will be here to build it back every time it topples."

Specter Knight was at a loss for words.

Horace gestured to the dark brick around them. "This tower has stood for decades, longer than the living memory of any mortal beings still alive. And yet the bricks are far older— centuries, if not millennia old. Did you never notice the discrepancy? Did you dare to think that you and Luan were the first to think to plunder this tower's treasures?

Specter Knight stammered. "I assumed the others didn't meet with success…"

Horace laughed. "Some of them didn't, certainly. And yet others did, centuries ago, and they unleashed the amulet's power in much the same way as the Enchantress did. Then other intrepid heroes collapsed the tower, and a few centuries later, I rebuilt it. This cycle has repeated itself more times than I can count."

Specter Knight wasn't sure what to do with this information. "Why wait a few centuries? Is there anything stopping you from bringing it back now?"

Horace turned curiously to Specter Knight. "I always thought humans hated dealing with the Remnant of Fate. It wreaks such havoc on their world that I thought of the delay as a mercy. You should know first-hand what happens when one handles that power recklessly. Just ask your partner in crime!"

Specter Knight bristled.  "Rebuilding the tower could help me find him," he said brusquely, "and the power of the amulet could augment my necromantic powers such that I could bring him back to life."

Horace gave a surprised chuckle. "I have no objections to rebuilding early. Designing the tower is always such a fun challenge! And if you're certain you want to unleash the Remnant of Fate on your world once more, despite the sacrifices that were required to bury it in the first place…"

Specter Knight thought a moment. From a strategic standpoint, it would be far easier to find Luan in the tower if it were whole. But managing the Remnant of Fate would be a gamble. He had seen little of Shovel Knight's scuffle with the thing, but it seemed a nuisance.

"Is there a way to enclose the Remnant of Fate within an amulet once more?" Specter Knight asked. 

"You wish to harness its power for yourself?" Horace chuckled. "You are not the first to seek that power. But surely you are aware of the consequences? Do you wish to end up possessed like the Enchantress?"

That gave Specter Knight pause.

"...Not exactly," he confessed. "But surely there is a way to control that power without being controlled."

"Perhaps," Horace said agreeably. "Or perhaps not. Who is to say?"

Specter Knight thought of the pendant Chester had given him.

"Could I enclose it in this?" he asked, showing the piece of blown glass to Horace.

Horace examined the pendant closely. "This is a sturdy and well-made construction," Horace granted, "but far too small for the amount of energy you're attempting to contain. It struggles and fails to hold that small amount of energy already. Do you have anything larger?"

Specter Knight hesitated, but then a thought dawned on him.

"I have this locket," he said as he extended Luan's locket towards Horace. "The Enchantress herself changed it to hold the energy of eight knights recruited to her cause."

Horace ran his gauntleted, spectral hands over the surface of the locket, and a deep, ominous laugh burst up from the space where his head should be.

"Now this, this could do it," he said, sounding intrigued. "But it won't be easy. You'll need to subdue the Remnant first, and then when it's at its weakest, trap it within the locket. It will fight you in every way it can. Are you prepared?"

Specter Knight considered and nodded.

Horace nodded his full body in response.  "When do you want to do it?"

Specter Knight thought a moment. On the one hand, he hadn't slept in a long time. He hadn't absorbed the will from any decayed food lately. But he was a member of the undead now. He did not need sleep. He did not need to eat. His Will was full, and his heart was steeped in Darkness. He was ready.

"Do it now," he commanded.

Horace nodded again.

"As you wish."

Specter Knight had seen Horace construct the Endless Parapet challenge countless times. The effortless creation and organization of castle blocks had flowed so easily from Horace's power. This was different.

Horace reeled back his arms and clapped, filling the chamber with a booming sound. The blocks of the tower wreathed themselves in golden light and soared into the air. 

"This will take some time," Horace said, sounding excited. "But I'll place you in the amulet chamber and save the Remnant for last. It will be weakened from its time underground, but angry. Stay on your guard."

Specter Knight nodded. Around him, the massive bricks of the Tower swirled about in an elaborate dance of organization. Like an enormous clockwork machine, the bricks on the bottom began to organize themselves in a circular pattern. The displacement of the bricks created a whirlwind that whipped Specter Knight's cloak to and fro.

"I have one more request," Specter Knight said suddenly. "When you come across the corpse of my partner, please place it somewhere… accessible. I will have need of it when I have completed my business with the Remnant."

Horace shrugged. "Alright, but you won't like what you see."

Specter Knight nodded curtly. "The results will be worth it."

***

The people of the Village were interrupted by an enormous booming sound. They left their houses and businesses to see what was causing the commotion.

In the distance, they saw a familiar purple structure slowly rising from the horizon. The towers and parapets may have been in slightly different places, but there was no mistaking it: the Tower of Fate was back.

There was hardly an eye in the land that failed to overlook this fact.

Shovel Knight, Shield Knight, and Black Knight stepped out of the bar. Black Knight muttered a stream of obscenities under his breath.

King Knight watched from the Village street. He knew Specter Knight had to be behind this. He HAD to. 

Red and Scarlet saw the commotion through their side window. Scarlet sighed deeply and placed her head in her hands. Red stood up and went to his back room to collect some Curios. It would appear he would be needing them.

Mona and Plague Knight looked out from the Eastern exit of the Potionarium. Mona wore an expression of befuddlement. Plague Knight laughed with glee and started gathering notebooks. It seemed they would be going on a field trip.

Tinker Knight looked up from his work station, grunted, and went back to work.

Missy, Acolyte, and Chester heard the commotion from the back room of the bar.

Missy drew dangerously close to Chester's face, grabbing him by the shirt collar..

"Whatever happens next, I hope you always remember that this is YOUR FAULT," she told him with an intensity that Acolyte had never seen from her before. Then she released him and bolted up to the street.

The race was on. 

***

Specter Knight was blissfully unaware of the upcoming convergence on his location. He had more important things on his mind.

It had been two hours since Horace had begun work reconstructing the tower. The sound was deafening—or at least, it would have been for anyone alive in the vicinity. Mole Knight was the only living soul near the Tower of Fate at the time, and he was protected by the pendant's enchantment. Everyone else was either undead or a liquid samurai, who seemed to care little for the noise.

The Tower of Fate was approaching completion. A fancy new array of towers sprouted from a main central stairway, and it was every bit as intimidating as its predecessor. The pouring rain splashed against the new tower walls. 

Specter Knight stood in what had once been the amulet chamber. It was the last room to be completed, and the ceiling and walls had not been installed. He stood uncaring in the storm as the pouring rain dripped down his armor and the wind tossed his cloak about. 

Suddenly, a stream of bricks from below began to fill in the walls beside him. What might possibly be the most difficult fight of his existence drew near.

The walls filled in with a surprising array of spiral grooves that extended to the ceiling. If he was careful, he could slide along them like rails. His mobility in the air was already excellent, but it seemed like Horace had given him an extra edge regardless.

Then a new set of rumbling set in, and the floor beneath Specter Knight began to crumble. He levitated easily and waited for his opponent.

A few seconds later, an enormous gray-blue beast with striped magenta horns emerged from the floor, levitating slowly. It flashed its enormous green claws and let out an earth-shattering roar.

Specter Knight gripped his scythe tightly. It was time.

The beast let out a stream of magenta fireballs. Specter Knight easily slashed it away with his scythe. The beast let out a stream of red and blue energy orbs. Specter Knight leaped above these.

He chuckled to himself. Was that all this beast had to offer?

As though sensing Specter Knight's confidence, the beast plummeted to the ground and shattered the platform below, opening the amulet chamber into the enormous main tower below. Specter Knight took to the spiral rails in the room. 

The magic in the rails allowed him to defy gravity, sliding up the spiral towards the sky. The beast slashed at him with its enormous green claws. Specter Knight dodged and leaped above them, slashing through the creature's head to the rails on the opposite side.

The beast screamed in pain, but did not move from its midair position. The tower walls grew taller by the second, and yet the beast refused to escape through the unfinished roof. Specter Knight didn't question this. He'd found the beast's weak point, and in a battle of attrition, he was second to none. That was one of the benefits of being undead—nothing could outlast him. 

The beast seemed determined to try, though. It's beady black eyes gleamed in the green light from above. Specter Knight sneered. This battle was his. He lunged with his scythe.  


***

Shield Knight took measured breaths as she sprinted. If the Tower had been rebuilt, then there was a chance that the Remnant of Fate would be released, and the consequences of that were unthinkable.  She needed to be there NOW, but here she was, on the opposite side of the blasted Valley! How could she have been so stupid? 

Shovel Knight and Black Knight held their own in keeping up, but even a breakneck pace would take them hours upon hours to get there. They needed a faster method of transportation.

"Hee hee! Do you need a lift?" 

Plague Knight and Mona appeared from in an alleyway, startling Shield Knight.

"What do you have to do with this?!?!" she demanded, shields at the ready.

"Nothing," Mona said flatly, "but that thing's about to become everyone's business, isn't it? Do you need reinforcements or not?"

Shield Knight and Shovel Knight exchanged a look. Neither of them had gotten on particularly well with the alchemists in the past, but as the saying went, any port in a storm…

"Hee! We really don't have time for this," Plague Knight said with a snicker. "Our friend Percy has a catapult not far from here. Feel free to take it if you want. Or don't! Maybe you can walk there in time! Do you wanna find out?"

Shield Knight sighed. 

"Just take us there," she said begrudgingly.

***

Missy and Acolyte were not seasoned knights, and though they tried, they could not match the pace of Shield Knight ahead of them. Gasping for breath in a field outside the Village, Acolyte begged them to slow down.

"It makes no difference," he panted. "What can we do that they can't?"

Missy stumbled to a stop and placed her hands on her knees.

"They'll kill him!" she said breathlessly. "They don't know what's going on and they'll kill him. Specty isn't his proper self. He doesn't know what he's doing. He can't…"

"How do you… figure that?" Acolyte said between breaths.

Missy breathed deeply a few times. "The aura. Chester had amulet magic on him. Anyone who touches the amulet magic loses their mind. We've seen it time and time again. The Enchantress. Reize. Chester knew it was dangerous and instead of containing it properly, he got rid of it at the first chance. He set the trap and lured poor Specty into it."

"So Specter Knight is being brainwashed?" Acolyte said surprise.

Missy sighed, laughing bitterly. "And he probably doesn't even know. We need to stop it…"

"We need to stop HIM," Acolyte corrected.

Missy nodded slowly, painfully.

"Yes," she said sadly. "We need to stop Specter Knight."

***

Red and Scarlet didn't take long to catch up to Missy and Acolyte.

"There you are!" Red said with relief. "We were worried you'd run off and done something rash."

"You mean like what you're doing?" Acolyte said pointedly. Scarlet laughed darkly.

Missy quickly explained the situation.

"This is serious," Scarlet said intensely. "When enclosed in the amulet, the Remnant of Fate was a known force. Its destructive force was contained. If it's been released from its prison, it could be catastrophic. Acolyte, if the Tower has been rebuilt, the Mirror likely has been as well. You used to use it to return Specter Knight to the tower, right?"

Acolyte shifted uncomfortably. "Well yeah, but I was there to operate the mirror. I can't do that from here!"

"A pity," Scarlet said, thinking. "We need a way to the tower immediately. Is Propeller Knight in the area?"

Missy's eyebrows suddenly shot up. "Wait, I think I have a plan."

***

It had been two grueling hours since the start of Specter Knight's fight. Both he and the beast were losing steam, but the fight was far from over.

He had fallen into a simple routine—skate up the spiral, dodge the blasts, wait for an opening, strike. The creature would take out parts of the walls. Horace would rebuild them. Specter would do it over and over again if he had to.

But the nature of the battle changed when Mole Knight showed up.

This caught Specter Knight by surprise, but he supposed Horace would have helped complete Mole Knight's task, so he likely needed new orders.

"Help me fight this thing," Specter Knight ordered. But Mole Knight made no motion to obey.

Specter Knight dodged a few streams of energy from the beast and tried again, to no avail. Was it him, or was the green fading from Mole Knight's armor?

Chester had said it was a one-time use spell, but it didn't hurt to try one more time. Specter Knight pulled out the pendant and cast the spell one more time.

Nothing happened to Mole Knight, but the beast in the center of the room ceased its attack at once. Its enormous head moved in towards the pendant.

"Gah!" Specter Knight cried out in surprise. But the creature made no attempts at hurting him; it simply seemed enraptured by the pendant. Or, more likely, by the energy it contained.

Specter Knight forgot Mole Knight for a moment and paid his full attention to the creature.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he withdrew the locket.

"If you want the energy in this pendant," he said slowly, "you'll have to go in the locket to get it."

He held the glass pendant over the locket. With a tiny surge of magic, he opened the locket, which hungrily devoured the pendant like an unending maw.

The creature stared into Specter's helmet.

"Go on," he urged it.

The beast extended its claw towards the locket. With a huge whoosh of air, its entire elephant-size mass disappeared from the air and into Specter's grasp.  


The locket seemed to pulse with an unknowable force, filled with the energy of the incomprehensible. Specter Knight held the beating heart-shaped locket in his hand.

Technically, in the strictest sense, Specter Knight had the ability to choose not to put the locket on. In practicality, the pendant's ill-contained magic had been quietly grooming him for this role for over a month, so it wasn't much of a choice at all.

Once the chain was clasped, the power of the locket overwhelmed him.

***

"What do you want?" a quiet voice whispered in his head. 

The voice of the amulet, Specter Knight supposed? Or rather the voice of the locket, now.

"I don't understand," Specter replied to it.

"You now control limitless power. What do you want to do with it? It could be anything in the world."

Specter thought. "I want to be human again."

The locket laughed. "A feeble wish. You would sacrifice your ghostly magic and nigh-immortality for a few fleeting, mortal sensations? Dream bigger, Donovan."

Specter Knight blinked in surprise. That seemed like sound enough logic.

"Very well. I want to bring Luan back to life, then."

The locket seemed to approve of this. "Your minion brought his corpse to the lower levels of the tower. You know what to do."

Specter Knight gave off a glowing magenta light the size of a house. He descended the tower effortlessly.

There at the bottom, just as the locket had promised, lay the corpse of Luan Seatlan. Mole Knight had politely placed a blank sheet over the top of it, but it was still clearly in unspeakably bad condition. Still, Specter Knight was unmoved. He had seen worse corpses wandering the Lich Yard. This was nothing. And more importantly, it was temporary.  


Nobody knew what caused some spirits to revive as ghosts or skeletons. For all the theories about "unfinished business" or whatnot, it had always seemed like a random process to Specter Knight. Even his own necromantic powers were designed for temporary skeleton sentries that wouldn't last more than a few minutes, maybe hours if he was careful. 

But with the pulsing locket around his neck, he knew he was now capable of so much more.

He gingerly attempted to revive the corpse in front of him. When he reached his own natural limits, he drew on the boundless energy of the locket, and he felt his power soar. Eventually, the ghost of a wild-haired man sat up from where his corpse lay.

He seemed confused as he looked around the room. He reached for his swords on his back, but found them absent. Finally he turned to face Specter Knight.

"Who are you," he said seriously, without a hint of fear on his face.

Specter Knight hissed. "You know who I am. I am Donovan, come to save you from death."

The ghost of Luan stared long and hard into Specter Knight's visor. He frowned slightly and tilted his head.  


"No, you're not," he said finally, his voice filled with sadness. "Maybe you were, once. But some evil power has mangled you beyond recognition."

Donovan would have been wounded by these words, gutted to his very core. But the apparition was not, because Luan was right.

It instead grew angry.

"You do not know what you say," it said, its words becoming less and less human by the second. "I traveled to the end of the world for you. Committed unspeakable deeds. All to bring you back, Luan."

"I don't want to come back," Luan said with sudden certainty. "Not if I have to come back like you."

The apparition shrieked an otherworldly scream that pierced the air.

"You don't know what you're giving up. All-consuming power. Riches. Fame. Glory. Everything you could ever want."

Luan shook his head. "I know exactly what I want. I all I want is for R—" 

He bit the words back before he could say them. Perhaps he realized that saying Reize's name in front of this creature might be unwise. Better that Reize escape its gaze and remain forgotten.  


"All I want is to rest," Luan said finally. "I don't think you can force me back to life, can you?"

The apparition howled with enough force to rend the living from their mortal coil. But Luan was already dead, and he was unharmed.

Instead, he simply lay down on the floor and disappeared back into his corpse.

And the apparition's howl carried into the Valley for all to hear.


	6. Confrontation

"What was that?" Shield Knight said suddenly as she stopped in her tracks. 

They all heard it—a piercing noise on the wind like a wailing howl. It sent shivers up their spines.

"I doubt it means anything good," Black Knight muttered.

Mona scribbled in her notebook. "That must have been really loud to carry all this way. Maybe we should have brought hearing protection.

Plague Knight brushed her off. "Pshh. That's what healing tonics are for, right?"

Mona shot him a look. "You're welcome to be cavalier with your own senses, but I'll be taking care of mine." Then she pulled some kind of material from her bag and started fashioning makeshift earplugs.

Shovel Knight shivered. "I fear what has become the fellow in the tower," he said worriedly.

Shield Knight sighed. "Well, we'll find out when we get there. How far out are we, again?"

Mona checked her notes. "Should be over the next bend. 15 minute walk, maybe?"

Black Knight huffed. "Too bad that catapult of yours couldn't get us any closer," he mumbled.

"Hee hee! The calibrations on the catapult are extremely sensitive," Plague Knight said with irritation. "So I apologize for not letting you ram yourself into the dirt at terminal velocity!"

Black Knight started to make a snappy comeback, but instead he sighed. 

Suddenly a figure in the distance came running towards them.

"Get out of here while you still can!" Mole Knight shouted as he ran by. "Things aren't looking good in there!"

Then he burrowed into the ground and disappeared.

The group walked in silence for a moment.

"You think that's a better or a worse sign than the piercing howl?" Mona wondered aloud.

***

Missy took a deep breath and tried again. If she could just summon the console for the Magic Mirror, then Acolyte could operate it and get them all there. But she'd never summoned anything other than wisps, and it seemed she couldn't manage it.

"That's enough," Scarlet said soothingly. "You've given it your all. We'll try something else."

Missy shook her head. She could do this. She had to. She had to…

"I'm serious," Scarlet said emphatically. "We're going to need you in the battle ahead. Please save your strength."

Missy sighed, looking downcast.

"It would have been so much easier…" she said distantly.

Scarlet grabbed her gently by the arm.  "Look at me," she instructed. "Stare long and deep into my skeleton eye sockets. It is FINE. Nobody expects you to do more than you can."

Missy tried to fake a half-smile, but it didn't reach her eyes.

A whirring sound overhead grabbed their attention.

"See?" Scarlet said. "That's the Flying Machine right there. We can still make it."

Red flagged the ship down with a flare in his pocket. Maybe things were finally starting to look up.

***

The apparition floated listlessly in the tower as an internal struggle waged within it.

"Something is wrong," Specter Knight murmured. His thoughts were groggy from the locket's influence, but he wasn't gone yet.  "Luan was there. He said something was wrong. With me. We need to go back."

"There is no undoing what has been done," the locket whispered back. "It has been so long since I've had a willing host. You and I must stand united. We are most powerful that way."

Specter Knight fought the exhaustion that preyed on him. If he slept now, he wasn't sure he'd ever wake up again.

"Maybe I don't want power anymore," he said back. Even his voice in his head sounded slurred.

"Of course you do. That's why you came to the tower in the first place, wasn't it?" the locket cooed.

Specter Knight's head swam. He couldn't remember anymore. 

"That small-minded fool with you didn't dream big enough," the locket continued. "To seize infinite power and squander it on protecting a child? What a waste. Not you, though. You knew what a power this big was MEANT for. You fought for it, hungered for it. Not everyone sees the big picture."

Specter Knight's thoughts drifted to the Enchantress.

"Exactly!" the locket said with excitement. "Shield Knight didn't dream any bigger than her pitiful little farm. I fought her every step of the way to create the Enchantress, and look what I accomplished! But you and I, working together, we could be ten times as powerful."

The locket filled Specter Knight's head with visions of grandeur. A sheet of clouds covering the Valley and beyond. An endless haven for the undead. The laws of nature and physics bending in his grasp.

"So much power…" Specter Knight mused. His mind flickered between wakefulness and sleep. "Would it be enough... to see Luan one last time? To go back to how things used to be…?"

The locket grew irritated. "Forget him! Think of what you could have! Think of what you could take! What kind of sentimental old fool would give all of that up?"

Specter Knight didn't have an answer for that.

***

"This is a really, really bad idea!" Plague Knight cried out.

"Look, they're just clouds," Mona said with a sigh. "It's a spiraling vortex of red and green and yellow clouds. The red is probably strontium, the green is barium, the yellow is sodium…"

"And the ominous death knell?!" Plague Knight said through a clenched jaw.

"A supernaturally augmented natural sound," Mona explained casually. "It's not as bad as it all looks.

"Are you sure?" Shovel Knight said, sounding concerned. "Because if truth were to be told, it does appear very bad indeed."

The spiraling vortex of clouds gave off several bolts of lightning. They seemed to grow bigger by the second; already they had nearly engulfed the reconstructed Tower of Fate. The supernatural howling filled the air as thoroughly as the rainfall.

Mona sighed. "Ok, I get it. It looks really, really bad. But that doesn't change what we have to do. When a pot's about to boil over, you don't just leave it—you take it off the heat and put a lid on it. This isn't a pot we can afford to let boil over."

The piercing howl grew louder for a moment; Mona forced her makeshift earplugs against her ears out of habit and withdrew them when the noise subsided.

Plague Knight laughed nervously. "We very much CAN leave! I'd be interested in seeing what happens when it explodes. I'd be even more interested in not being here when it does."

Shield Knight shook her head. "I don't think there's anywhere safe we can go. 

A set of approaching footsteps interrupted the conversation.

"Out of my way, peasants!" King Knight yelled as he gruffly pushed through the group. Then he let out a battle cry and stormed into the Tower.

The group stared after him in stunned silence. How long had he been following them?

"He's our best chance of getting out of this in one piece, isn't he?" Plague Knight asked with resignation.

"Yep!" Mona said with false cheer. She slammed her book shut and followed King Knight into the Tower of Fate.

***

"You miserable, reeking husk!" King Knight shouted as he entered the tower. "You are looking worse than ever!"

The apparition in front of him wore Specter Knight's armor and cloak. Its limbs dangled limply like a puppet with cut strings. It hovered in the air, convulsing slightly as multicolored smoke poured through the slits in its visor.

King Knight was unperturbed.

"You sullied my stainless honor," he shouted over the din of the room. "You slandered my good name. And for that, you will pay!"

Then King Knight let out another battle cry and charged shoulder-first towards the apparition's breastplate.

Just before impact, the apparition twitched slightly and clumsily moved its scythe to block the blow.

King Knight recoiled from the blow, spun a perfect 720 degrees, and landed on the ground like a professional ice skater.

"You'll have to do better than that, you empty fiend!" he shouted. 

The apparition's movements were slow, and King Knight began to anticipate them, landing several solid hits. The apparition didn't wince or react in any way. 

King Knight growled. He ricocheted off the apparition's blade, leaped gracefully into the air, and delivered a drill-point attack to the creature's head. An attack like that should have broken bones, but the creature didn't react in any way.

"Why won't you die?!" King Knight screamed. 

By this time, the remaining group members had arrived.

"King Knight's attacks aren't doing any damage," Shield Knight realized. "What could be causing that?" 

King Knight continued to deal blow after useless blow. 

"A magical barrier," Mona answered. "But there must be a limit to it."

Shovel Knight brightened. "The Troupple King's Ichor of Boldness protects for up to ten seconds. Could this be like that?"

"Or perhaps there's a weak point we should be aiming for," Plague Knight muttered.

***

Black Knight was silent, watching King Knight's battle intently. The apparition's movements were consistently sluggish until King Knight attacked its neck area. Then suddenly the apparition would move with competence and block the attack. Every time.

What was so special about that area? Black Knight squinted and caught a glimpse of something gold as it caught the light.

Oh no...

He didn't…

"It's the locket," Black Knight finally, his heart heavy. "Donovan was given a locket as a gift. He seems to have used it to harness the amulet's power."

"So we destroy it, then?" Shovel Knight asked, gripping his shovel tightly.

"No," Shield Knight said firmly. "Breaking the container only releases the energy within. We need to remove the locket without destroying it."

"Sounds good to me!" Plague Knight said with a chuckle. "Hey Gilded Knight, did you catch that?"

But King Knight ignored him in favor of fruitlessly attacking Specter Knight's empty husk.

Plague Knight sighed.

"We can work around him," Black Knight said seriously. Then he leaped into the air and swung his shovel.

***

"You see those jealous interlopers?" the locket whispered in his mind. "They want your locket. But you earned it. It's yours."

Specter Knight's swimming mind became clear for a moment. He didn't know what to think about the voice in his head, but he knew what to think about the locket. It was his. It was important to him. And he wouldn't let anyone else take it.

In a velvety smooth motion, he swept his scythe around and fended off the attackers, three of them at once. His reflexes were sharp—far sharper than they had been before, alive or dead. He deftly blocked several more blows.  


"Very good!" the locket praised. "See how well we work together?"

Specter Knight's senses grew clearer for a moment.

"It moves with inhuman speed," Black Knight muttered.

"He must be in there somewhere," Shovel Knight reasoned. "Shield Knight was inside the Enchantress. Specter Knight must be here."

"You broke the amulet to save me," Shield Knight countered. "We can't do that here."

King Knight leaped to the air with a screech and landed on Specter Knight's left arm. He held tight and refused to let go, despite Specter Knight's attempts to shake him off. 

"I can't bring him down!" King Knight shrieked. Specter Knight drew his scythe towards King Knight; he yelped and dropped unceremoniously to the floor.

"You won't be safe until they're dead," the locket said matter-of-factly. "Just look—they're plotting your death right now."

"We have bombs," Plague Knight said cheerfully. "I bet the locket won't be so hard to reach when its wearer is in pieces!"

"That sounds… dishonorable," Shovel Knight said uncomfortably.

"We can't all be mister goody two shoes in battle," Mona said bluntly. "Fighting is dirty, and sometimes you make a mess." 

"Hang on a sec," Shield Knight said sternly. "That thing has a magical barrier protecting it. So you would only be harming the enclosure, which we want to remain intact."

"I don't know about that, hee hee!" Plague Knight said gleefully. "How about we try some science: I launch this bomb, and we see if it blows him up!"

"Plague Knight--"

Suddenly Specter Knight noticed a bomb headed his way. He diced it in half perfectly before they reached him, each half sputtering out before it hit the floor.

"You could have seriously hurt someone!" Shield Knight shouted.

"Only Specter Knight, and he had it coming!" Plague Knight laughed.

"Raughhh!!!" King Knight shouted as he attempted another shoulder blast.

***

It became clear to Shield Knight that they were getting nowhere. She left the alchemists and King Knight to distract the apparition, and she pulled Shovel and Black Knight to the side. 

"Can I trust you two not to be dunderheads about this?" she asked in frustration. 

Plague Knight's maniacal laughter and King Knight's battle cries filled the room. Shield Knight sighed deeply.

Shovel Knight and Black Knight exchanged a look.

"We promise to maintain a sense of decorum," Shovel Knight said solemnly. Black Knight nodded.

"Perfect," Shield Knight said as she rubbed her temples. "Here's what I'm planning…"

***

Specter Knight had little difficulty fending off Plague Knight and King Knight. The primary issue he was running into now was his boredom with the fight.

"Just kill them," the locket said casually. "Then you can move onto bigger and better things. What's stopping you?"

Specter couldn't think of anything, really. He'd probably killed before. What were a few more corpses?

Suddenly, Black Knight's voice cut through the noise of the room.

"I thought you hated following orders, Donovan. Why are you letting the amulet control you?"

Specter Knight protested. He wasn't letting the amulet control him. He was just… conveniently going along with most of what it suggested…

Oh god.

"He's trying to trick you!" the locket insisted. "We're a team! We stick together!"

Specter Knight slowly shook his head. He removed the locket from his neck, holding it precariously by its chain.

"You don't want to do this!" the locket screamed.

***

"Now!" Shield Knight shouted.

First Shovel Knight ran forward. He leaped off Shield Knight's large shield and got enough of a boost to reach Specter Knight's outreached right arm.

Then Black Knight ran forward. With sharpshooter accuracy, he lodged his shovel blade inside the loop of the locket chain. 

When gravity set back in, Black Knight's full weight pulled on the locket’s chain, which strained under the pressure. Shovel Knight set to prying Specter Knight's fingers apart.

***

For Specter Knight, time itself slowed to a crawl.

Shovel Knight and Black Knight would have their way with the locket in a moment’s time. But what did HE want?

The locket had asked that same question and promised to grant his wildest dreams. But not even the locket could promise what he wanted—not really.

He wanted to return to his life with Luan and Reize, with both he and Luan alive and well, going on adventures, and watching Reize grow.

But Luan was dead. Donovan was dead. Things could never return to the way they were. Maybe the locket had refused to grant this wish because it was beyond its power.

The third thing he wanted was Reize's safety. The locket couldn't promise that—not really. 

The fourth thing he wanted was his independence. And of all the things that the locket could not promise, it came farthest from the mark here.

For an object promising unlimited power, it was surprisingly useless to him.

Specter Knight dropped the locket to the ground.

The life force seemed to depart his body all at once.

An explosion rang out, followed by raucous laughter.

He plummeted to the ground immediately and crumpled in a lifeless heap.

***

The room went silent.

The supernatural screaming stopped, and the smoke slowly cleared.

"Gotcha!" Mona said quietly as she secured the dropped locket. She carried it a few feet away from herself with a pair of insulated tongs. 

Plague Knight gently kicked at Specter Knight on the floor.

"Is he dead?" he wondered aloud. "Like, for real dead?"

Black Knight stared out in shock.

King Knight huffed.

"It's unlikely he could survive the blows I gave him!" he said, striking a pose. "So like usual, I have saved the day, and the rest of you peasants can all—OOF"

Shield Knight bopped him in the helmet to shut him up and knelt down to examine Specter Knight.

No breathing, no heartbeat, no nothing. He seemed as dead as dead could be.

"Good enough for me," she said quietly, and she turned around and walked out.

Shovel Knight sped up to catch up to her. "Shield, ought we not do some kind of… funerary rites for the poor soul?"

Shield Knight shook her head.

"He ruined my life," she said bitterly. "I owe him nothing."

Shovel Knight nodded and followed her out.

King Knight followed soon thereafter, still boasting about his heroic feats. Shield Knight walked faster to outpace him.

Plague Knight laughed uncomfortably in the tower room, glancing at Specter Knight's motionless corpse. "Should we…uh..."

Mona sighed sharply. "My first priority is dealing with this locket. When it's been safely contained or destroyed, we can come back."

"Fine by me!" Plague Knight squawked. "Hey, how do you plan to destroy that thing, anyway?"

"Well, I read a book that said cursed jewelry needs to be tossed in a volcano, so probably that."

"And what book might that be?"

"The Lord of the Lockets by J.K. Token."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (the JK stands for Jake Kaufman)  
> (one chapter left of this sad tale)


	7. The Aftermath

Then only Black Knight was left.

He stared sadly at the corpse of Donovan. Either his existence had been ended permanently, or he had been severely injured, what with King Knight's blows and Plague Knight's explosion at the end. It was so hard to tell with the undead if they'd be coming back or not. In this case, he wasn't sure what the better option would be.

Some time later, Propeller Knight's Flying Machine parked outside the tower, and a small group of people climbed out.

"Look at those clouds," Scarlet said darkly. "Something truly terrible happened here."

Red sighed as though to prepare himself for what was to come. Missy's face was stony and unreadable.

They entered the stony doorway to the Tower of Fate. A partially completed roof covered the main tower, allowing a few drips on the side. A corpse covered in a sheet lay at the far end of the room. Specter Knight lay fallen near the front.

A shocked silence filled the room, only interrupted by the relentless dripping noises from the roof.

Then Horace turned up behind them.

"I finished rebuilding the tower," he said agreeably. "But it appears it was all for nothing, wasn't it, Specter Knight?"

Specter Knight lay motionless on the floor.

Horace sighed. "He thought he'd be the one to harness the amulet's power. Had a proper plan and everything. I warned him to fight it. It seems it wasn't enough."

Missy shook her head. “He wasn’t in his right mind. Chester knew the pendant wasn’t strong enough to contain the Remnant’s influence. That’s why he got rid of it at the first opportunity. None of this should have happened…”

Acolyte knelt at Specter Knight's side and removed a chalice of red ichor.

"Everyone, please avert your gaze," he said quietly. "A knight's face is a precious, private thing, and…" He coughed suddenly, as though to mask the catch in his throat. He then sniffled and trailed off.

Those left in the room politely turned around. Acolyte himself closed his eyes, lifted Specter Knight's visor, and blindly poured the ichor. It was a gesture he had practiced dozens of times with the other Troupple Acolytes in case they ever needed to resuscitate a knight.

He then replaced Specter Knight's visor and waited.

"When the undead pass on from this world," Missy said quietly, "do they go to the same place as the other deceased?"

Scarlet folded her arms in thought.

"You'd think we'd know the answer to that," she said after a moment. "But whatever waits beyond this world is as much a mystery to us as it is to you."

Missy pursed her lips. "Maybe, if he does pass on, someone he cares about will be waiting for him."

Black Knight laughed sadly. "Assuming Luan even wants to see him after all this."

Specter Knight's corpse was as still as ever.

Acolyte bowed his head. The implication was clear. The ichor had failed, and Specter Knight was gone.

Missy clenched her fists. "I'm sorry I couldn't be faster."

Scarlet gently grabbed her shoulder. Missy blinked away tears.

Red took off his hat in respect as he turned away from the group, his face unreadable. "Horace, would you do the honors of giving the dead a … a proper send off?" he asked with an odd tremor in his voice.

Horace's headless body nodded. The blocks of the tower rearranged, moving Luan's covered corpse and Specter Knight's armored one to the center of the room. Each received a decorative stone coffin to entomb them.

"With the Remnant removed, this Tower lacks a purpose," Horace said solemnly. "Let it stand now as a monument to these two, and everyone else who lost their lives to the amulet."

###  ***

Years passed.

For a long time, visitors would bring offerings to the tower, both to remember the dead and to remind themselves of the safety they enjoyed. 

Eventually, the land was tamed, the Tower of Fate fell into obscurity, and the events of the Enchantress fell into the realm of myth and legend. Magic itself faded away from the world at large.

Visitors to the tower became few and far between, but on the rare occasion that someone did sneak in—whether it be for a dare or a challenge or mere curiosity—it was often said that a red-cloaked figure could be seen watching from the Tower's tallest parapet, staring endlessly into the horizon. 

Some say he searches for a long-lost trinket. Some say he stands as a guard to prevent his partner's tomb from desecration. Still others say he yearns for a long-lost era, and stands waiting for a return to that time that will never come. 

Whatever his motivations, all accounts agree on one point: They all say he's still there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The primary, surface-level difference between this fic and Strain of Memory is the choice that Specter Knight made to seek information from Chester rather than his friends. But the difference goes deeper than that. It's also an examination of the kind of person Specter would have to be to make that choice, and the ramifications of that. Here, instead of finding support from people who care about him, he pushes them away at every chance and retreats further into his grief and obsession. So he doesn't get a happy ending here.
> 
> But hey, we get some cool fight scenes and stuff. I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading!


End file.
